A little bit of dignity

When athletes perform well through difficult times, often of their own making, pundits are far too likely to give them credit for character and perseverance. When Pete Rose set the NL record for a hitting streak during a divorce, he was widely praised for his focus. Just a teenager at the time, I kept thinking: Well, maybe he doesn’t care too much about his family.

When Barry Bonds was praised for playing at MVP-caliber through distractions in 2004, after the BALCO scandal broke, I thought people were giving him undue credit for poise. They were discounting the possibility that Greg Anderson and Victor Conte had given him a really great chemical boost.

But over this season, with a grand jury, a declining body and an expiring contract in his face, he has demonstrated another kind of poise. It started when people threw a few steroid-themed items onto the field early in the season, as he started the final assault on Babe Ruth’s No. 2 spot on the career homers list. Bonds was the epitome of cool. On Opening Day, he almost blithely picked up a syringe tossed onto the field in San Diego and tossed it off the turf. He said he didn’t want anyone to get hurt.

Now, Bonds has always been very controlled in these situations, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise. But it was still impressive. And when another protester threw a tube of sports balm at him a while later in Arizona, he reacted just as calmly. There hasn’t been much fuss since then; the fans didn’t get the reactions they wanted.

Then, last weekend, when he finally lost his cool on a called strike, he more than made up for it later. Bonds’ argument with home-plate umpire Ron Kulpa entailed more frustration than he has revealed on a baseball field in a long, long time. His remarks afterward about the argument and the ejection — “There were two unprofessional people out there at that moment; he was unprofessional and so was I” — were a prime example of how a pro should compensate for misbehavior. He didn’t exactly genuflect to the ump, but he took responsibility for his part.

Bonds has not been a paragon this season – you saw “Bonds on Bonds,” right? – but he has conducted himself with a certain dignity that reflects a respect for the game. It’s small compensation for his role in the steroids era, but it’s more than some of his contemporaries have managed.